You know we have some West Coast
States and some others across the
country that are pushing to get their
school face mask mandates lifted.
What are your thoughts on where
Washington stands on getting
that lifted out of schools?
Like the entire two year pandemic,
the data evolves the evolution of this
evolves and in the beginning it was
such a critical measure for protection
'cause we didn't have vaccines and
we didn't have an understanding.
As we've gotten higher vaccination rates,
natural immunity rates and a better
sophistication about knowing how this
impacts students both from a health
standpoint and then mental health standpoint,
it's time to make the evolution.
It's time to make the change.
So we're working every day with Department
of Health and the Governor's Office on.
You know what they're thinking and what
kind of science they want behind this,
but we have encouraged them to
think intensely about this.
It is time to make the next
transition in this pandemic,
and that is likely a mask optional,
but that isn't the decision I get to make.
Only an insight for the decision makers
on this from the lens of schools and our
schools are ready to make this transition.
So you think we should move to a mask?
Optional state.
Could you talk about that?
What that would look like if
you were the one who were able
to make the recommendation?
Again, I'd grounded in the science.
Still, you have to just can't
be whipsawed because you know
there's a lot of emotion around it.
Mask, help, mask, collect droplets
that otherwise are distributed
in the air and on the surfaces,
and on other folks.
The question is in the beginning,
when you had no other mitigation strategies,
you absolutely had to do that.
Here we are now with the ability for
everyone who's in our schools to be
vaccinated and if they choose not to.
That's very unfortunate.
But we have other strategies now,
and so the downside of wearing masks,
whether it's speech therapy or learning
or that social interaction or the
frustration or all the discipline of
teachers asking kids to put them up or
the community frustration those variables.
Uhm? Didn't counter the the
health benefits in the beginning,
but now with vaccination options
those variables become more important,
so you know what I keep saying
to the governor's office.
And today is.
You are the experts at public health
and you need to get through this.
But you said consistently that public
health is more than case rates.
It is mental health, it is community.
It is that sense of learning
ability for young people,
that sense of hopefulness.
So I think if they consider
all those factors,
they will make a transition
sooner rather than later.
And that's what we're
encouraging them to examine.
And if it were your recommendation,
would you say let's let's get rid of masks?
Or let's make them optional.
Let's move forward.
I would I would make the mask
optional and let families make
that decision at this point.
With a really good public health
and information campaign that if
a new variant comes along that's
as deadly as the ones we've seen,
there may be periods of time
where we have to go back to it.
And that's really hard for people to accept.
But yeah.
How regularly are you in touch
with the governor's office or the
DoH on this particular topic?
Especially as of the last few days
and today because other states
governors are making this call.
Well, through the pandemic we've
been in touch with him almost
daily through the whole pandemic,
so it isn't new our frequency,
but it's it's it's daily.
Sometimes it's three or four times a week,
but but almost daily one or
the other governors officer.
This isn't new.
This topic we've been talking
about for quite some time,
absolutely. And do you feel like
you're hearing from a lot of district
leaders that they want this that
they want the masks to be lifted?
Yeah, there's been a steady beat
of that for a long time, and again,
I disagreed with him when it was one of
the only health mitigation strategies and
hospitalizations were going through the roof
and we were losing lives at record rates.
It was just an ignorant message for them to
say masks shouldn't be worn in the beginning.
Today, though, what they will tell you is,
here's my vaccination rates,
and here's my cases,
and here's my ability to demonstrate
the evidence that because of vaccines,
natural immunity, and our ability to
quickly identify symptomatic individuals,
we can do this effectively now,
and I concur with that.
I concur with that.
So more and more districts are telling
us when we weigh all things now.
The balance of that decision
should be on mask optional.
Right? Do you think you have an idea
of a timeline of when that could?
Potentially, you know,
come into the mix of here's the plan,
and here's where we could launch it.
Is that something we could see
before the end of this school year?
Almost definitely.
Everything we gather from the
governor's office 'cause it
really is a decision of health.
Is that I think they're on a similar
line of thinking is excuse me,
these other states we've seen
so decision making in March
or final decisions in March,
so I think they're on a similar
track as other states.
They just pre announced without
a lot of detail.
And as you know,
in Washington we're not likely
to announce anything until
we have a lot more detail.